Rachel Slangen, from the Maastricht University Medical Centre in the Netherlands, and colleagues randomized 36 PDPN patients to SCS in combination with best medical treatment (BMT; 22 patients) and BMT only (14 patients). If trial stimulation was successful, the SCS system was implanted. Definitions of treatment success include ≥50% pain relief during daytime or nighttime or "(very) much improved" for pain and sleep on the patient global impression of change scale at six months.

The researchers found that 59% of the SCS and 7% of BMT met the definition of treatment success (P<0.01). Daytime and nighttime pain relief were reported by 41 and 36% in the SCS group, respectively, and by 0 and 7% in the BMT group, respectively (P<0.05). In 55 and 36% of the SCS group, pain and sleep were "(very) much improved," while no changes were seen in the BMT group (P<0.001 and P<0.05, respectively). One patient from the SCS group died as a result of a subdural hematoma.

"Treatment success was shown in 59% of patients with PDPN who were treated with SCS over a six-month period, although this treatment is not without risks," the authors write.